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  • Essay / Childbirth in the Poetry of Gillian Clarke and Tishani Doshi

    Doshi's Liberator is set in Kerala in a center designed to help children who have been rejected by society because of their gender, deformities and of their skin. The immorality of the scene represented by the description of “naked in the street” and “crammed” in bags (in reference to children) creates the semantic field of carelessness. These terms insinuate that children are considered property and not a living being deserving of care and love. This is reinforced by the dog thinking that children are "bone or wood", implying that children are seen as an expendable and useless resource by parents unless they provide a financial or societal benefit ( men or fully capable). A contrasting tone is shown in "Caitrin" as the metaphor of the "tight, red rope of love" (actually an umbilical cord) is used to convey the immediate and vehement emotional bond between mother and child. The use of "tight" suggests that the mother is immediately protective of her child, and Clarke uses enjambment to isolate this word at the end of a line emphasizing its emotional impact. This contrasts with the objectification of children in "The Deliverer" which highlights social differences in how the value of life is viewed. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get the original essay The fact that the child was buried alive acts as a metaphor for how those who are considered inferior are at the bottom of society and are considered “dirt”. This relates to the uncompassionate tone of the first three stanzas, reflecting the lack of empathy shown by mothers and fathers, as they are "collected" much like a useless commodity found in abundance, contrasting with the Western ideal of children . The title itself has a double meaning since the deliverer could also be a deliverance from God, emphasizing how desperate the children are for some form of salvation which is shown to be provided by the American family in the fourth stanza . Additionally, the imagery of "waiting at the gates" implies that this is heaven for the child and that they are the "Gods", further inferring that they had the ability to choose life or death for the child. The Milwaukee airport part draws many parallels to "Caitrin" in that the parents are entirely focused on the child and it is described as a "ceremony" that implies that the birth/children are respected and cared for, as shown in “Caitrin” when the mother speaks of “tender[nes]” and “love” creating a semantic field of care, a bit like in stanzas five to eight. In “Caitrin,” the entire poem centers on the struggle of birth and child while in “The Liberator,” childbirth is trivialized by placing it in a single line and speaking about it in a blas? manner – “the body slips out of the body”. The repetition of the word "body" and its equivocal meaning, either being dead, or the scientific term dehumanizing our self dehumanizes both the child and the woman, suggesting that they are considered by society as a mere vessel for producing babies. The adjective "slide" implies the action was performed with ease while the use of the word "struggle" in "Caitrin" suggests that it was a difficult task. This shows the stark contrast between approaching childbirth, as "drag" suggests that it is a frequent occurrence, while "struggle" implies that the act of childbirth is a decision considered from both an economic and physical point of view, thus strengthening.